New mural blossoms in Waterbury village
November 6, 2023 | By Sandy Yusen | CorrespondentJust in time for stick season, a colorful mosaic of towering flowers has burst into bloom on the side of Village Market in Waterbury.
The new installation—created by Jericho artist Mary Lacy and commissioned by the Pomerleau family—is the latest in a series of artworks adding visual interest to Waterbury’s public spaces. And its backstory reveals a very unique inspiration and collaboration.
The seed of the project came from Waterbury Arts, a small nonprofit organization founded in 2019. At that time, the group came together to create an artistic expression of the town’s resiliency in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene. The result was Phoenix Rising, a community-funded mural designed by artist Jessi Zawicki, which was unveiled in August 2021 at 5 Stowe Street. Since that flagship project, Waterbury Arts has broadened its focus to encourage the development of additional public art in Waterbury.
According to Whitney Aldrich, founding member of Waterbury Arts and owner of Axel’s Gallery and Frame Shop, the Main Street reconstruction project spurred the arts organization to engage in a strategic planning process to identify and prioritize options for additional art projects in town. The blank canvas of corrugated siding at Village Market made the list.
Early last spring, Waterbury Arts approached Pomerleau Real Estate, the family-run real estate firm based in Burlington that owns the downtown shopping center that includes the Waterbury Village Market. “We came to them with a visual presentation. You have this great asset in town, and we would love to help you recognize this asset through public art,” Aldrich explained.
They found a receptive audience in president Ernie Pomerleau and Madeline Richards, Pomerleau’s assistant chief operating officer, property manager, and Pomerleau’s niece. According to Richards, Pomerleau has a love of the arts and has sponsored other art installations, including a mural on the side of the Montpelier Shaw’s Supermarket.
But the timing of this project for Waterbury hit differently. In August 2020, Pomwerleau lost his daughter, Jessica Anne Pomerleau-Halnon, to cancer. She was just 36 years old. Richards shares that after her tragic passing, Pomerleau “was looking for ways to celebrate her, and we thought, what if he could do something for the town, but also remember her?”
Richards says Waterbury is special to Pomerleau and it felt like the perfect setting for a mural. They liked the space Waterbury Arts identified for its size and viewing opportunities near the railroad tracks where Amtrak trains pass by twice a day.
“We were looking for the biggest canvas that would have the most effect,” Richards recalled. “This felt like a great, visible spot.”
The Phoenix Rising mural on Stowe Street also offered inspiration. “It’s such a cool piece,” she said. “We wanted something that would really pop and draw as much attention.”
The connection to Lacy came from Richards’ commute to her office in Burlington that took her past the mural of a ruby-throated hummingbird on the corner of College and St. Paul streets. Richard said she thought the artist, Mary Lacy, would be perfect for the project. “It is one of my favorite pieces of art,” Richards said of the iconic hummingbird.
Lacy had earned recognition for her large-scale outdoor murals and mosaics drawing from themes of community and the environment. In addition to the Burlington hummingbird which won a Seven Daisies’ award for the best mural/public art in 2019, her work includes the Dealer.com silos on Pine Street and a residency at the former Moran Plant. In 2016, Lacy embarked on a tour of the U.S. to create 10 murals in 10 different cities in 10 months, partnering with arts organizations, community groups, businesses and youth centers along the way.
Richards chose Lacy not only for her aesthetic and experience, but also because Lacy took time to understand what Pomerleau wanted, and to learn about his daughter Jessica so that their relationship could be captured in art.
“Anyone can say ‘what do you want me to paint?’ but she listened to Ernie’s stories…that’s what made her so special,” Richards recalled.
Pomerleau shared with Lacy that one of his fondest memories was of his daughter running through a field of flowers when she was young. Lacy suggested a mural of bigger-than-life, beautiful flowers that would depict Jessica’s childlike wonder. A blue butterfly was added as special symbol for Jessica, and as a reflection of how her family imagines her now. “It feels like it really grabs her essence,” Richards said.
Lacy’s final design, she said, was inspired by the conversations with the Pomerleau family, and “embedded with rich personal symbolism” to honor their loved one.
“At the same time, we wanted it to be relatable and meaningful to anyone who interacts with it,” she said, commenting on the giant dominant lilies in the piece. “For me, these flowers so outsized remind me of being a kid again, looking up, noticing a place of wonder.”
From inspiration to installation
Lacy intended for the finished piece to be both mosaic and mural: “It existed in many pieces in my basement, in my backyard, in my car…before it ever came together into one image here on the wall,” she said.
But transforming the original concept into its three-dimensional form had its challenges. “The installation was the most complicated part, involving a lot of math and meticulous organization,” Lacy explained. “But it would be a mistake to think the installation came at the end—I had to design, from the start, for the installation and the constraints it would inevitably bring. But I also enjoy these sorts of engineering challenges and the way it can produce unexpected creative discoveries.”
Lacy first drew a design by hand, then transferred it to a computer where she added color and verified the scale. She then cut the shapes out of high-quality plywood with a jigsaw and primed, painted and top-coated each piece.
Pomerleau’s maintenance crew helped Lacy install the piece, which required mounting wooden tracks of varying lengths onto the corrugated metal wall which formed a skeleton for hanging the colored panels.
“Many passersby were very confused by the seemingly random 2x4s that lived for two days without the flowers,” Lacy said after the installation was completed in early October. “Then, we hung the plywood shapes and it started to make sense for folks.” Lacy reflected on what the new piece adds to the community: “My hope is that this large, bright, lively mural makes this particular location—a parking lot—feel like more of a ‘place,’” she said.
“Murals are landmarks,” she continued, posing some hypothetical questions. “Is this a parking lot or a living room? How can we make a town feel like home? … I think it has something to do with making a place unique, with welcoming a sense of surprise and character, with not needing to look the same as the next town over. And over time, we accumulate memories and associations with these mini-landmarks (be they murals or benches or bus stops or dog parks…) that make a place particular.”
Growing public art in Waterbury
The new mural is the latest in a series of artistic enrichments to Waterbury over many years, fueled by the creative vision and dedication of many individuals and organizations.
In September, the Madonna’s Earth mural, created by Burlington artist Raphaella Brice and organized by the Waterbury Area Anti-Racism Coalition, was unveiled on the back of the Stowe Street Cafe building. Local artists MK Monley and Chiyomi McKibben led a public art team that selected Brice and rallied more than 50 community members to help paint the piece.
Monley, a former primary school art teacher who has led many of Waterbury’s artistic initiatives including the River of Light lantern parade and the founding of the MakerSphere nonprofit, also worked with Burlington artist Julio Desmont and local middle and high school students to enhance two of Main Street’s electrical boxes with colorful makeovers in 2022.
One of the first big projects took place in 2018 when Revitalizing Waterbury polled community members to choose an art installation for the North Main Street railroad bridge. Now those heading to and from downtown pass under the winning entry, “The Waterbury Special,” an aluminum train sculpture created by Randolph artist Phillip Godenschwater. The organization circled back in 2021 to make use of the runner-up sculptures from the bridge project. Created by Vergennes artist Tyler Vendituoli, the colorful metal birds are installed along and near Main Street downtown adjacent to various public parking areas.
Sarah-Lee Terrat is a well-known local artist and advocate for expanded public art. Her work can be found all over Waterbury, including a two-story mural at the Vermont State Office Complex. Many are familiar with her murals that formerly graced the walls of Arvad’s Grill & Pub, the larger of which depicting a fictional gathering of famous Vermonters. It was carefully restored and removed and now resides at the Vermont History Center in Barre; the smaller mural is displayed in part at the Waterbury Train Station and inside the Steele Community Room at the municipal complex.
Terrat says she sees much potential for more public art all around Vermont. “When I travel I often see multiple outdoor murals and artwork enhancing cities and towns,” Terrat said. “Our biggest challenges are a short season for outdoor production, and a lack of financial support for such projects. Both challenges are not insurmountable. Public appreciation for initial completed projects may help pave the way for more. I think that has been happening, however slowly, in our community.”
Waterbury Arts hopes to continue its role as a catalyst and resource for increasing public art in town. The group aims to bring works of art to more areas identified during its planning sessions, including the grassy entrance to the Waterbury Square shopping plaza, and the Waterbury Community Path behind the State Office Complex. Waterbury Arts is also collaborating with Revitalizing Waterbury on the Stowe Street Alley project, now scheduled for groundbreaking in April 2024. And Aldrich hints at future plans for “the town’s first temporary public art project”—a downtown installation that would be seasonal and change each year.
Overall, Aldrich said, a community with public art has a vibrancy. “Not just vibrancy visually, but vibrancy as a conversation. It shows a community is not afraid to have conversations of the unknown or maybe the uncomfortable,” she mused. “Public art I think is the heartbeat of a town.”
MK Monley agreed and pointed to the role art played in Waterbury’s recovery from Tropical Storm Irene over a decade ago. “Those of us who are artists in the community know the power art has to heal, to bring people together, to build social capital…I feel like it says we care about our community,” she said.
As for the new mural at Village Market, Richards encourages residents and visitors to go by and enjoy it, get up close to appreciate its scale and accessibility, and perhaps consider the childlike mindset that inspired it.
That’s easy to do as Lacy noted how accessible her latest creation is. “I love that these [flowers] are on the side of the grocery store—that someone in the midst of their mundane and perhaps hurried errands is welcomed with this opportunity to look up, their bright colors ideally uplifting.”
Sandy Yusen is a freelance writer and Waterbury resident.